Linford Christie awaits dangerous driving verdict

Waiting game: Linford Christie arrives at Aylesbury Crown Court where he is on trial for dangerous driving

The jury in the trial of former Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie - who crashed head-on into a taxi while driving the wrong way down a major road - retired to consider its verdict today.

The former 100m champion told Aylesbury Crown Court during the case he thought he was "going to die" after colliding with the cab carrying a pair of newlyweds.

Jurors heard he clambered out of his badly-damaged Audi A8 through its window because he thought it could "blow up".

The sportsman, of Sherland Road, Twickenham, west London, denies one count of dangerous driving on the A413 Amersham Road in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, on May 8 last year.

During the trial the panel of seven women and five men heard the taxi was propelled onto a grass verge while the dark-coloured Audi came to a halt in the middle of the carriageway.

Newly-married Peter Ashton had to be dragged from the taxi following the late-night crash.

Mr Ashton and his new wife Claire Lloyd-Ashton, both from the area near the crash, her uncle Michael Burt, from Cheltenham, and driver Naeem Akhtar were travelling from a venue named Merlin's Cave, in Chalfont St Giles, to the Bull Hotel in nearby Gerrards Cross, where they were staying.

Christie, dressed in a charcoal-grey suit and a blue and a white diagonally checked shirt, sat quietly at the back of the court during the proceedings.

Prosecutor Nigel Ogborne said the sprinter had failed to buy a pint of milk on the evening of the crash because the nearby Tesco Express petrol station was closed.

He told the court Christie was making his way home along the unlit A413 between 11.30pm and 11.40pm when he ploughed into the silver Mercedes taxi.

"He drove for some 185 metres and, the prosecution say, he drove on the wrong side of the road," Mr Ogborne told the court.

"He was driving on the opposing carriageway and a car was driving the other way and there was a head-on collision."

During the defence case the jury heard that Christie told a police officer at the scene: "I saw lights and 'bang'. I smelt this funny smell and thought 'If I don't get out I'm going to die'."

Christie went into the witness box during the trial and answered questions from Ben McQuire, defending.

The sprinter choked over his words as he said he had split up with his girlfriend shortly before the crash.

He told the court he had recently spent six weeks with a group of athletes training in the US, and returned to the UK a week before.

Christie described driving to his ex-girlfriend's new house on Misbourne Avenue in his Audi A8 - with a personalised number plate 100 RUN - and then crashing into the taxi.

Cross-examining Christie, Mr Ogborne asked him how many times he drove in the US when he was at the training camp.

The former runner said between seven and 10 times.The prosecutor asked: "Are you blaming the cause of this accident on the fact that you were driving in America?"